POLICE BEAT

Partially naked woman reportedly found screaming in downtown Bangor

BANGOR, Maine — Police got a call that a woman streaker was in downtown Bangor late Wednesday night, and when Officer Josh Kuhn arrived he found a screaming woman naked from the waist down, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Thursday.

She appeared to be on the synthetic drug bath salts, the sergeant said.

“She was screaming that someone was trying to kill her and she demanded the officers try to kill them,” Edwards said.

Bath salts users often feel threatened for no reason and believe others are out to kill them, Lt. Tom Reagan said at a bath salts conference held Wednesday in Bangor. The lab-made drug emerged on the streets of Bangor back in February, and Bangor police dealt with 100 cases involving the drug last month, Bangor police Chief Ron Gastia said at the conference.

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Bath salts users also often have high body temperatures, which causes them to strip off their clothing, Dr. Anthony T. Ng, medical director of psychiatric emergency services at The Acadia Hospital, said recently.

Kuhn, assisted by Officer Ryan Freeman, encountered the screaming woman at around 11 p.m. Wednesday on the back fire escape of the Reverend Noble Pub on Broad Street.

At one point, she jumped from the stairs and fell upon the officers, Edwards said.

The police report was not completed Thursday morning, so the woman’s age and place of residence were not available, nor was information about whether she was taken to a hospital, the sergeant said. No charges were filed Wednesday night, he said. (Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN)